


Picking up glass

by BrokenFingers



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23559391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenFingers/pseuds/BrokenFingers
Summary: A short story of Nathan experiencing a small breakdown after a tough week, his relationship allowing for a new form of support from Warren.*** Some background info: Nathan and Warren have been dating for a few years. Mark and Sean are currently in prison. Chole Is alive. You can allow yourself to develop whatever scenario you would like for further context as this is simply a short story***
Relationships: Warren Graham/Nathan Prescott
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	Picking up glass

The morning sun slowly rose and in time, flooded the room with light. The beams, now hitting Warren’s closed eyes, stirred him awake, a wince and a small groan escaped his lips before he cracked his eyes open.

His mind suddenly started piecing together his current situation. He was huddled underneath a pile of blankets and pillows, and this wasn’t his room. It was Nathans. And that person was entangled underneath him fast asleep, they were intertwined almost like a coiled snake. 

That’s right… last night..

The pieces continued to fall into place. They had planned to have a date night, go out to dinner and enjoy a movie or something. But that didn’t end up happening at all.

Instead, Nathan had a major breakdown and if he wasn’t now awake in his partner’s room, he would have convinced himself then that it was all just a terrible dream.  
The last few weeks had been difficult for both of them. Warren was swamped with his internship and balancing schoolwork to boot. Nathan had been dedicating his time at his job, the company he worked for had a collaboration with a slightly big band, it would be a first for the production team and they needed to make a good impression. Normally Nathan thrived in the busy work, he was almost too good at what he did and was quickly climbing up the chain, he had the work ethic of a classic Prescott. And speaking of Prescott, his father had been serving time in jail for the involvement of the darkroom and Mark Jefferson. But he was to go up in a trial to determine his fate of imprisonment.  
Warren knew that this bothered Nathan a lot. The day his father went to jail, he basically acted as though the man didn’t exist anymore. Since then, he pushed himself to be free from his old life. As Nathan described it “I’m not letting anyone control my life anymore”.  
This also meant that Nathan had even taken the massive step of quitting drugs and alcohol. Which was a shock to even Warren. But according to Nathan, those substances were used to control him into doing whatever anyone wanted. And It made sense, Warren was fully aware of how easy and common it was to use drugs as a way to control a person into doing messed up things. And frankly, he was glad to see Nathan finally taking some steps to be more independent. 

But he could tell that the last few weeks we’re off...  
Nathan was seeming more distant. Work was now something he depended on to keep him from reality. Even to a point where he had to be reminded to pay his rent, which was never an issue for him. He also didn’t seem to want to know anything about the upcoming trial, but he was constantly being approached by lawyers and even a few presses about it.

Warren had hoped that planning a date would help ease his mind a bit. Nothing super fancy, just a laid back dinner at some food joint and maybe a film. They hadn’t actually watched a movie together in a while, and films were always a significant part of their relationship. He figured that even if the movie wasn’t great, they would at least have fun making fun of it.  
But that day, as Warren was leaving the shower, a couple of hours before Nathan was to leave work, he received a few messages on his phone. 

Something came up, sorry but I have to cancel tonight. 

I feel bad, but maybe next week we can make up 

The second message was several minutes from the first. Warren, slightly put off by the vibe of the message, replied

Is everything okay? 

He waited a few seconds before placing the phone on the sink to comb his hair. 

Time passes and the phone buzzes again as he pulls his t-shirt down, now dressed. 

Just work things, we can talk tomorrow.

As much as Warren wanted to respect his partner’s subtle request for time alone and peace, he couldn’t help but feel slightly paranoid. Nathan was pretty open about work, and when something came up, he was usually good at specifying. But also, Warren just couldn’t push the worry rising in his head about it. 

He chose to act now and apologize later, leaving for Nathans’s apartment. Once there, he left the front door light on to signal that he had let himself in. 

For nearly three hours Warren was in the apartment playing with Nathans cat and keeping an eye on his phone. Nathan would have normally been home about an hour ago, but he did say he had to deal with work. And Warren wasn’t about to be overly anxious and bug him about where he was. 

In a sad attempt to keep himself busy, he tried to urge Nathans cat Niro to eat. Never being much of a cat person he only felt like he was being purposely ignored, if not a bit judged by the feline. But suddenly, the door clicked open and Warren shot up from the kitchen corner and quickly made his way to the living room where Nathan would be. 

“Warre-?” Nathan was in the process of calling out his name looking around the room before he made eye contact with him, he quickly tore it away and his eyes rested on the floor. His body became tense and there was an immediate aura of defense. 

“Hey, sorry... I know you probably wanted to be alone, but I just wanted to make sure everything was okay-” Warren’s sentence dies as he said it, he felt awkward, hoping he wasn’t coming off as pushy.  
“Uhm thanks.” Nathan started, in a way that almost resembled a robot, he took his jacket off and took the time to hang it in his small closet, normally he would have just thrown it to the nearby luxurious couch near the door. “It’s all good, just got busy at work.” His words were as stiff as artificial intelligence too. He began to make his way to the kitchen, Warren cautiously following. 

Warren fought the urge to be too snoopish. He tried to follow at a distance and attempted to avoid over-analyzing his face. But god, Nathan was different right now. 

“Have you eaten yet?” Warren asked, playing casual, trying to lift the heavy atmosphere.

“Uh no, I can make us something if you want.” Nathan glanced back at him quickly before again, turning his back, now grabbing some glasses from one of the cupboards. 

“Only if you want, I can always grab something on the way back.” Warren stood behind the counter on the other side of the kitchen. “Sorry that you’ve had to spend so much time at work lately.”

“It’s fine. Unfortunately, it’s just apart of the job.” Nathan was now digging through the fridge, still, his back faced Warren. “Uhm, How was your day?”

Warren smiled, hoping that this would result in some easing of the tension. “Busy, but it was good, just regular old intern stuff. But hey, I got a game package from my Steam today, maybe we can see what’s on it?”

“That’s cool, yeah” It was a sad attempt, but an attempt the least to sound even a bit enthusiastic about the topic. Of course, Warren didn’t know what else to do, so he continued his spiel about what he heard about one of the games he had received from his package. All while watching the backside of Nathan prepare what looked to be a salad and some leftovers. When Nathan had to face warren, he either paid his entire attention to the thing he was holding or only held eye contact for a few seconds before shifting them downwards. 

At this point, Warren felt as though he was being a pest rather than any help. It was clear Nathan was in a bad mood, and he had to admit failure in knowing how to even approach the situation. 

“Ah anyways..” Warren trailed again, he should probably just go home ..” Maybe I should just-”  
His phone began to ring from his pockets. Quickly, he dug through his jeans and put the phone to his ear, not even bothering to check who it was from. “Hello?”

“...Is this Warren?” A deep voice came from the other side.

“Yes, who am I speaking with?” 

“Keep away from my son.”

Oh. Now he sounded familiar.

Warren was frozen by the statement on the other side of the phone. 

“I’m going to say this once, I will not allow some worthless Faggot taint my family’s reputation and my name. Leave him alone now or watch your back.” 

Warren had only been able to stumble an incoherent sentence before the phone clicked, the caller had hung up. Ironically, this was the first time he had ever been called a slur before actually dating Nathan. Warren didn’t actually know what to think but a voice calling him filled the stark silence, grabbing his attention.

“...Was that my dad?” 

Warren looked up to the now equally startled looking Nathan who was holding a plate of what looked to be a salad and some kind of baked chicken and a glass of water in the other. What should he say? Warren could only respond with a yes, honestly. But boy, was that the mistake of the night. 

Immediately it looked as though Nathan had turned a shade lighter. His mouth opened slightly and his body, like a robot, moved to put the dishes he was holding down on the counter in front of him, but he missed and they toppled hopelessly to the ground. The sound of shattering glass and porcelain rang through the air.

“Hey-” Warren quickly made his way around the counter. 

He passed the large wall diving the rooms but didn’t see Nathan where he last saw him. Instead, Nathan was now also toppled on the floor. His eyes widened as he watched Nathan scooping the glass with his bare hands which were now shaking. Despite the situation, Nathan continued to look stunned, a blank expression as his filled with more broken shards. Did he even know what he was doing?

“Nathan stop..” 

Moving quickly, Warren kneeled down to meet the other male and reached his hands out trying to urge him to hand over the pieces of broken plate and glass. It was a stupid plan, it would have done nothing, but what else could he do? Nathan just continued to stand with pieces in his fist and moved to the sink opening his hands to let the shards fall. 

“Nathan stop!” Warren jolted up and rushed to his side grabbing his wrists and pulling the blonde away from the sink to face him. “ Nathan stop! Your hands..”

Too much was happening at once. Warren was now holding Nathans’s hands at eye level and they had clearly been cut, in fact, much to his horror, he could see small shards sticking out of his palms, but not well. The next observation was that Nathan was clearly shaking quite intensely. From his now bleeding hands to his shoulders, his head lowered. Warren’s words were caught in his throat. 

“S-sorry” It was so quiet he almost couldn’t hear it, but Nathan quickly repeated the apology once again before balling his fists again, pressing blood from the cut. He made a weak attempt to pull them back from Warren’s more stable grasp. 

“I’m so sorry-” The words hitched, then trembled, his head lowering even more until he was basically melting back onto the floor. Warren followed him down still grasping his bleeding hands.  
“Sorry? What for?”  
But he could only witness the slow descent upon him as Nathan began gasping for breath. He pulled his hands back again to his eyes but, worried about the glass protruding from his palms, Warren continued to pull them back slowly, instead, pulling Nathan into a limp hug, in which prompted Nathan to finally let out a sob.  
Warren wasn’t a stranger to Nathans’s tears, He didn’t cry often, but with everything they had both gone through, tears had in fact been shed and shared. But the cries coming from Nathan now lacked control and combined with much hyperventilating, scaring Warren a bit. Not to mention there were still shards of glass in his hands… Warren couldn’t just sit there and let Nathan completely exhaust himself on the kitchen floor like this... 

“Nathan” Warren pulled away from the loose hug they had been in for a few unknown minutes  
“Nathan, you need to breath okay? You’re going to pass out. What happened?” He cupped Nathans face with one hand and tried to brush his hair from his soaking, red eyes. Nathan was able to take two large breaths before his lungs forced more gasps and choked sobs.  
“Sorry- It’s just--” He tried to pull his hands to his face to rub his eyes, but Warren caught them in time. Nathan glanced at his red dripping hands and his lips broke into a deeper frown before another sob escaped his lips. “Fuck, just this whole week…. Has been fucking too much” 

Unsure if he should even touch the topic of Nathans’s father with a ten-foot pole, Warren tried to dig more info from his heartbreakingly sad partner who now resembled a beat puppy.  
“Have you been taking your medicine?”  
Nathan nodded before pausing “I forgot a couple of times.”  
“What time did you go to bed last night?” God, he sounded like his mother. But he tried to use the barrage of questions as a distraction as he helped Nathan to his feet.

“...I didn’t… I couldn’t sleep”

“Nathan. Honey. I love you, but you suck at this whole functioning thing.” He pulled Nathans arm around his shoulder “We need to get the glass out of your hand’s”

“Warren, my dad-” Nathan began to tremble in his breath again “The trial.. He- He’s gonna-” He couldn’t even finish the sentence before more tears poured from his eyes. The two now stumbling into the bathroom. Warren was quick to sit Nathan on the side of his bathtub and kneeled to face him. 

“Look at me.” He gripped Nathan’s shoulders, “Screw that old man okay? He may be a rich asshole, but that’s it. He doesn’t have any control over you remember?” Warren stood up and turned to dig through Nathans cabinets to find anything resembling a first aid kit.  
From the edge of the bath, Nathan sat with his elbows propped on both of his knees, He stared at his bloodied hands, trying hard to focus his vision enough to actually see the damage. His eyes burned an felt like weights, he could hardly focus on much. Warren’s last words reemerged in his mind. 

“He’s been calling me all week” 

“What?”

“My dad. I think mom told him about you…” his voice was faint, Warren had to pause his search and turn to him just to make out what he was saying. He stared at Nathan who was now looking down, his breathing becoming ragged again. He turned again and continued gathering things. 

“So… I’m not your family’s biggest fans then huh?

There wasn’t a response. 

He finally discovered an unopened pack of tweezers in one of the counter drawers. He turned and placing all of the items at Nathans’s feet and got to work. 

They had to rinse his hands with the tub faucet as they were decently covered in blood. Warren could now clearly see all the small cuts and shards of differing sized shards of glass stuck into his palms. He had to works quickly as blood was still continuing to seep from the deeper cuts. 

“Jesus Nathan, you know brooms are a thing right?” He held one of his hands in his own and began deciding what to pick off first. “This might hurt..”

“This week has been so fucking much” Nathan murmured in reply, his hands beginning to tremble. His hands shook often on a normal basis from a lot of things, in this case, it was hard to tell why. Warren looked up to Nathan whos eyes were still rimmed with tears, his eyebrows pinched upwards. Warren returned a sympathetic look “I’m so sorry”.

“My body has been fucked up from all of this withdraw shit…” This was true and had been noticeable since he had started. He had been weirdly good at just passing it off with a joke until now.  
“I’m trying so hard to impress these people at work..” His voice rasped and began to crack. Warren kept his focus on removing the small shards, slightly impressed (mostly intimidated) by the lack of pained reactions from Nathan. If he had so much as a splinter of glass in his hand he would have been half the mess Nathan was now. The only comfort he could offer now was circling his thumb over the back of Nathans’s hand as we worked in plucking the bloody shard from his skin.  
Nathan let out a stifled sob again before continuing “I don’t want to go back to how I was before..with him you know? I’m trying hard not to obsess over impressing anyone, but it’s hard.”  
Warren nodded  
“People already call me weird… I know they don’t mean it that way, it just hard not to take it that way… after being called that my whole fucking life” He took a few breaths trying to control his trembling shoulders and crying, his voice now lower, anger threaded in his words “And now my fucking dad…” 

In a quick attempt to squelch this immerging fire, Warren rose from his kneeling position so he was face level to Nathan, he placed his hand behind the blonde head and pulled him forward. It was a quick kiss, Nathans face banked out, Warren pulled him in again, another quick kiss. He moved his hand to Nathans’s cheek and looked into his damp eyes. “You are weird Nathan. But that’s not a bad thing. You are so talented I don’t think there could be another word other than weird to describe it.” Nathans’s gaze lowered. “I’m sorry that you still struggling at work, it’s normal to want to impress those above you, I have to do the same with my internship to stand out. But look at you” Warren sat fully down again adding some distance to the two “You’ve taken such a huge step to be independent already, you quit taking drugs and drinking, which I never thought I would see the day of, you are taking control and I have never been so proud of you. I know you’re in the thick of it and it’s going to take a while for you to see it, but everyone is proud of you..” Grabbing his hand again she began to look for remaining glass.

“Your dad, well…” He let out an angry huff of air “He can just- fucking kiss my gay ass for all I care.”. A barely audible snort came from the tub, a success in warrens book. 

His other hand thankfully had mostly cut’s rather than shards of glass in them. Warren opted to wrap the whole palm with a bandage and cover his fingers with small bandaids. It wasn’t long before Nathan began crying again, but compared to the intensity of a busted damn, his sadness flowed much like a trickling river. It was clear that he had been holding a lot in, and unfortunately, Warrens’s words could only do so much, he just needed to let it out. Warren chose to stay with Nathan for the night, he didn’t feel entirely too comfortable leaving his partner alone now.  
Nathan got changed into a pair of sweats and a loose shirt while Warren replaced his jeans for a pair of joggers he always left at the apartment.  
Sitting on the bed, it took some time to control Nathans emotions, he kept apologizing for how much of a mess he was and Warren continued to joke about much of a baby Nathan really was, lovingly so. Although Warren really did know, Nathans’s mental history was messy, he classified this incident as a nervous breakdown, as it seemed he was just unable to handle all the stress piling on his shoulder. Honestly, though, anyone in his place would.  
Warren reached to crack open the window behind the bed and wrapped his arms around the sniffling young man and buried the both of them under the pile of blankets he had laid upon the mattress. 

\-----  
It was now morning, Warren carefully moved the blankets and looked down. At the moment Nathan only resembled a messy bundle of hair at his chest, he could feel one of his arms draped over Warrens’s waist. He gently lifted his hand and began feeling around the base of the blankets for his phone, he lifted it and checked the time. It was almost 12 in the afternoon. How long had they been awake last night? Although, he wouldn’t be surprised if Nathan needed at least three days of rest to fully recover from the draining event the night before. He felt bad, but slowly started to shift his position in an attempt to get out of the cat-like-huddle they had found themselves in, and speaking of cat-like… A purr arose from the entrance and Warren could hear chirping traveling through the room, soon he felt a new weight jump onto where his feet were. Great.  
Soon his face was met with a bundle of thick, black Norwegian forest fur and a little nose pressed against his own.  
“Mmm-Hey” Warren muttered turning his head away from the curious feline. The cat only resorted to pawing at his face and sniffing his hair continuing to chirp into his face. At least someone in this family likes me…

A sigh emerges from the blankets and much to Warrens dismay Nathans’s eyes begin to flutter open. “Sorry, I was trying not to wake you..” Warren sheepishly whispered attempting to dodge the cats grooming attempts. Nathan reached up to rub his eyes but as they made contact with the bandaged surface he winced before shifting some space between them. 

“Morning” his voice was course and groggy, more than usual mornings. His cat’s attention changed to Nathan a small relief to Warren. Nathan was more welcome to the exchange from his pet and returned the favor by scratching the back of Niro’s ears. 

“Did you sleep okay?” Warren asked, observing his partners now puffy eyes, still pink from the night before, his complexion was a bit faded. Nathan nodded before looking into his eyes “well you basically suffocated me last night, I was probably knocked out.” he flashed a playful glare to Warren who returned with a slanted smile. But the small glimmer soon faded as Nathans lips fell again, a glaze over is eyes. He sat up “dear god-” his hands rose to his head. 

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve just been run over by a damn train...or a massive hangover, the kind where you throw your guts up..”

“That’s no surprise, you’re probably super dehydrated. Need me to get you a glass of water?” 

“That’s okay, I can get it.” Nathan swung his feet over the bed, promoting Niro to hop off as well, she raced her way to the Kitchen. 

“I have never seen Niro so...affectionate” Warren stated jokingly, referring to his forced cuddle session with the cat earlier. Nathan Stood lazily and wobbled away from the bed “She gets like that when I’m upset.”  
“Woah, I didn’t think cats could feel anything but..nothing for people”  
“A dog person would think that.”

They made their way to the kitchen but as they entered the two both stopped simultaneously “oh shit”.

The shattered dinner wear had all but been forgotten from the night before and was still splattered onto the floor, bits of salad, glass, and blood flung about. 

“Oops, I guess I forgot to clean that up… My bad.” Warren placed a hand to the back of his head before turning to Nathan. He just looked sadly upon the scene “it’s fine, I can get it.”  
“Don’t even try” Warren started “I don’t want you to dirty your bandages.”

“God I’m such a fucking idiot” Nathan moaned as he made his way closer to the mess “I don’t even know what I thinking, I just- I didn’t even think about what I was doing” 

Warren cleaned the mess while Nathan tiptoed around and made coffee for both of them. The mess was a quick clean along with disposing of the remaining leftovers that had to been forgotten among the storm. 

For a moment, the two stood in the kitchen sipping at the brewed cups of coffee. But the tense look on Nathans’s face eventually broke and he placed the cup, successfully this time, onto the counter. “Warren, I still can’t ignore my father’s threats… and neither can you. He found your number for god’s sake..” 

Oh yeah. Warren’s memory sparked again, remember the phone call. He knew Nathan was right to worry, and admittingly, he too felt a bit on edge about it now. Nathans dad wasn’t just a bully, he was a bully with a shit ton of money. 

“What are you going to do?”  
Warren looked up rather confused by the question. “Me?” Nathan nodded, looking concerned. 

“Well, I’m not going anywhere if that’s what you mean.” The immediate smidge of relief on Nathans’s face nearly broke Warrens’s heart. 

“You know this is your dad just trying to bully you right? He’s trying to scare you into being manipulated by him again.” Warren leaned back into the sink counter. 

“I know, I-” Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose, his stance ridge once again. “I feel so stupid, here I thought I was fearlessly living my life, free from this asshole. But the moment he’s close to me again, so close to possibly being free from behind bars, I’m back to having my fucking tail behind my legs.” His frustration was clear, but Warren spoke up. 

“But that’s okay, your just another step closer to fighting him. Listen, I’m not going to lie, I’m scared too. But think about it.” Warren placed his mug aside “He’s not out of jail yet, and the fact that he’s in there now means a lot. People know what he’s done, he isn’t going to be able to boss the whole town around like he used to, the people won’t allow it.” He gestured to the space they were is “Also we are miles from Arcadia bay right now, He, nor your mother know where we are.”

“You don’t know that.” Nathan interrupted him “He has your number, how do you know we aren’t being stalked right now?” 

“If we are, we can actually go to the police here Nathan, these people aren’t associated with arcadia bay.” He shrugged “Also, let’s be honest, I probably left my number on Facebook or someplace like an idiot..” He picked up his mug again “Listen, all I’m saying is that he doesn’t have power over you anymore, He’s going to try and trick you into thinking he does, but he doesn’t.”

“I guess you have a point... I just, can’t let anyone get hurt because of me anymore…” He attempted to cross his arms but the sting from the cuts forced him to lower them to is side.  
“I just can’t help but be anxious about it”

“I know, and I appreciate that you would feel nervous for me” Warren joked “Just, try and relax, I’m not going anywhere... like seriously, you are the best thing going for me right now” Warren chuckled but was interrupted as a pair of arms found their way around his body and Nathans head resting on his shoulder. A surprising sign of affection from Nathan The Prescott 

“Thanks..”

Nathan pulled away, his face now more shaded with color “Seriously, thank you, you helped a lot being there for me last night, and now. I uh- don’t think I would have hands still if you hadn’t been there.” He pulled in for another hug, returned by Warren’s bear-like grip “I’m sorry about my dad, but I won’t let him fuck this up for me.” Warren bent down slightly and lifted the shorter man from the floor. 

“Woah hey!” Nathans’s reaction was similar to Warren trying to pick up Niro, squirmish and desperate to not be in the air, offended that his height was being challenged by the younger male. Warren placed him on the ground and pulled back, grinning from ear to ear “I’m happy to hear that. Your dad can go fuck himself and I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, but I have always wanted to develop Nathan's story further. I hope in time I can release new content that explores my theories and personal interpretations of Life is Strange. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment on how I can improve!


End file.
